Memorial service celebrating Don Will's life

Chapman University professor Donald Will died last week at his home, surrounded by family, after a lengthy battle with cancer. Will, who directed Chapman’s Peace Studies program, was 65.

Will lived in Orange with his wife Ntathu Mbatha (Leonora Will) and his son Alex.

“He was a guiding light for me and for many others,” said Mildred Lewis, assistant professor of English at Chapman. “I will miss him,” she said.

For years, Will mentored Chapman’s Black Student Union and annually students to the Model United Nations held in New York City, she said. “His commitment to social justice was unparalleled.”

Will’s roots in Peace Studies began with his family’s involvement in groups such as the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an interfaith organization working for peace, Lewis said. He was instrumental in bringing many distinguished professors to campus, such as civil rights activists Cornel West and Rev. James Lawson, she said.

“He put Peace Studies on the map at Chapman,” university president Jim Doti said. Will, a faculty member at the university since 1987, led the Peace Studies program since 1988.

Will passed on Monday, Feb. 10. University chancellor Daniele Struppa made the announcement of his death the following day.

When Will arrived on campus, he revitalized the Peace Studies program, Struppa said in a campus-wide email. “He rebuilt the connections of the program with the people who had long cared deeply about peace and Chapman’s role in promoting peace and the study of peacemaking,” he said.

“Don believed in and embodied the ideal of global citizenship,” Struppa said. “He truly lived the words of Albert Schweitzer that one should seek and find a place to invest one’s humanity. We are unbelievably fortunate that our colleague and friend Don Will chose to invest his humanity in Chapman University,” he said.

“He’s a big loss for Chapman,” said Nubar Hovsepian, professor of political science and international studies. “He wore so many bloody hats,” Hovsepian said. “But as I like to tell my colleagues here, he’s much bigger than Chapman.”

Will and Hovsepian were friends for 35 years. They used to be two white-haired men who met for lunch. “Now I don’t have a lunch partner,” Hovsepian said. They originally met in New York City, where Hovsepian worked at the United Nations and Will worked across the street at United Methodist Office for the United Nations, where he worked on social programs.

“He made a point that the issue of social justice is an ethos that we need to impart to our students,” Hovsepian said. Hovsepian learned from Will that the promotion of social justice requires the engagement of religious people, he said.

Will recruited Hovsepian to Chapman, where they worked together for 10 years. “Leaving the East Coast and coming to So Cal wasn’t my cup of tea,” he said. “Don would use his friends to help lure them to do the right thing,” Hovsepian said. “Were it somebody other than Don, I would’ve told them, “Thank you, but no thank you.’”

Along with Jim Coyle, who directs Chapman’s Center for Global Education, the three created the international studies master’s program at the university.

Will was also active in the anti-apartheid movement along with his wife, who was born in South Africa.

“Think about the man, let him inspire you, don’t mourn,” Will said in a recent interview with the Register about Nelson Mandela’s death. One of Will’s most recent writings was a column in the Register about the challenges of a post-Mandela South Africa.

Marilyn Harran, professor of history and religious studies, remembered Will as a man who was principled, gentle and kind. “He never failed to articulate his belief in a way that engaged people rather than separate or isolate them,” she said. “He was a person of such kindness and gentleness and that infused everything he did.”

Doti visited Will a few days before his death. “He was very weak and his mind was clouded by the effects of morphine,” Doti said. “Yet, when I asked him if he had anything important to share with me, he said without missing a beat, ‘Jim, don’t let Chapman forget about peace studies.’”

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